In today’s episode, we explore the evolving role of market research to see what happens when artificial intelligence intersects with human insight. With fast-changing consumer behaviour and an overwhelming flow of data, timely and culturally grounded research has never been more critical for decision-makers. Joining us is See Toh Wai Yu, CEO of Central Force, a Malaysian-based research intelligence firm. We discuss how businesses can avoid the common pitfall of building in isolation, especially startups, and why misreading your market is more than just a data problem.

In today’s episode, we explore the evolving role of market research to see what happens when artificial intelligence intersects with human insight. With fast-changing consumer behaviour and an overwhelming flow of data, timely and culturally grounded research has never been more critical for decision-makers. Joining us is See Toh Wai Yu, CEO of Central Force, a Malaysian-based research intelligence firm. We discuss how businesses can avoid the common pitfall of building in isolation, especially startups, and why misreading your market is more than just a data problem.

Where would your business be in 10 years time? How about 5 years from now? Or even tomorrow? Chances are, you’re already in the age of a digital business. Tech Talk is the programme that gives you access to the minds that are shaping the world of tomorrow. Hear from global and regional experts and analyst, record breaking developers, the dark-web hackers and the “crazy ones” as they give you an insight to how the world will change. Tech Talk helps you to breakdown the geeky jargons and complex codes that many often would fear. Also find out what are some the latest consumer offerings like smartphones, drones, robots, cameras, video games that are best in the market and quirky insight to a mind of a digital pop culture technology advocater, Richard Bradbury.

Where would your business be in 10 years time? How about 5 years from now? Or even tomorrow? Chances are, you’re already in the age of a digital business. Tech Talk is the programme that gives you access to the minds that are shaping the world of tomorrow. Hear from global and regional experts and analyst, record breaking developers, the dark-web hackers and the “crazy ones” as they give you an insight to how the world will change. Tech Talk helps you to breakdown the geeky jargons and complex codes that many often would fear. Also find out what are some the latest consumer offerings like smartphones, drones, robots, cameras, video games that are best in the market and quirky insight to a mind of a digital pop culture technology advocater, Richard Bradbury.

Tech Talk

How does the Internet work? To be honest we don't know either. But on Tech Talk, we deconstruct the relationship between humans and technology and understand how it shapes our business and life.

The Future Of Market Research, Here and Now

Is your company’s AI strategy a ticking financial time bomb? While consumer subscriptions offer "subsidised intelligence," the transition to enterprise agents like OpenClaw is exposing businesses to "AI bill shocks" and context window bloat. 

From the hidden mechanics of token-based billing to the capital expenditure of moving models on-premise, Daren Tan of ALPHV Technologies joins Tech Talk to unpack how to scale AI without breaking the bank.



Learn More About:




Token Billing Mechanics: AI costs are driven by "tokens", broken-down text fragments, where input data (prompts/PDFs) and output responses are billed at different rates depending on the model's reasoning complexity.


The "Context Window" Bloat: As chat histories grow, LLMs re-process the entire conversation for every new prompt, exponentially increasing costs. Daren recommends starting fresh threads to prevent "context rot" and wasted spend.


Four Pillars of Bill Shock: Organisations face financial risk from 24/7 agentic loops, "agentic checking" (AI verifying AI), and the illusion that enterprise API costs mirror $20 consumer subscriptions.


Model Routing & Caching: Strategic cost-saving involves "model routing", sending simple tasks to cheaper "Nano" models, and utilising prompt caching to receive up to 90% discounts on recurring queries.


The On-Premise Pivot: When cloud costs become commercially unviable, shifting to local hardware (like Nvidia DGX systems) offers fixed costs and mandatory data sovereignty for regulated industries, albeit with significant upfront Capex.


The Governance Gap: Deploying autonomous agents like OpenClaw without strict oversight can grant AI full access to file systems, creating critical security vulnerabilities and credential risks.



Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.

Is your company’s AI strategy a ticking financial time bomb? While consumer subscriptions offer "subsidised intelligence," the transition to enterprise agents like OpenClaw is exposing businesses to "AI bill shocks" and context window bloat.&nbsp;From the hidden mechanics of token-based billing to the capital expenditure of moving models on-premise, Daren Tan of ALPHV Technologies joins Tech Talk to unpack how to scale AI without breaking the bank.Learn More About:<ul><li>Token Billing Mechanics: AI costs are driven by "tokens", broken-down text fragments, where input data (prompts/PDFs) and output responses are billed at different rates depending on the model's reasoning complexity.</li><li>The "Context Window" Bloat: As chat histories grow, LLMs re-process the entire conversation for every new prompt, exponentially increasing costs. Daren recommends starting fresh threads to prevent "context rot" and wasted spend.</li><li>Four Pillars of Bill Shock: Organisations face financial risk from 24/7 agentic loops, "agentic checking" (AI verifying AI), and the illusion that enterprise API costs mirror $20 consumer subscriptions.</li><li>Model Routing &amp; Caching: Strategic cost-saving involves "model routing", sending simple tasks to cheaper "Nano" models, and utilising prompt caching to receive up to 90% discounts on recurring queries.</li><li>The On-Premise Pivot: When cloud costs become commercially unviable, shifting to local hardware (like Nvidia DGX systems) offers fixed costs and mandatory data sovereignty for regulated industries, albeit with significant upfront Capex.</li><li>The Governance Gap: Deploying autonomous agents like OpenClaw without strict oversight can grant AI full access to file systems, creating critical security vulnerabilities and credential risks.</li></ul>Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.

$100K AI Bills? 4 Drivers of Token Bill Shock

Free buses, childcare, broadband and housing; who decides what makes a universal basic right? This week, Matt and Roshan discuss Universal Basic Services and begin a two-part conversation on social resilience, post scarcity abundance, and the techno utopians battling to shape and profit from the future.

Free buses, childcare, broadband and housing; who decides what makes a universal basic right? This week, Matt and Roshan discuss Universal Basic Services and begin a two-part conversation on social resilience, post scarcity abundance, and the techno utopians battling to shape and profit from the future.

MSP358. Back To Basic: The Universal Town Square

Employees leaking company secrets. Traceability gaps blocking production. 74% of organisations regret their AI vendors. The rush to adopt artificial intelligence is creating massive blindspots. Daren Tan of ALPHV Technologies joins Tech Talk to unpack the expensive realities of enterprise AI deployment and how to stop "Shadow AI" in its tracks.



Learn More About:




The Shadow AI Threat: Employees using free-tier consumer AI tools pose a massive cybersecurity risk, requiring strict endpoint management and enterprise legal contracts to prevent proprietary data leaks.


Escaping Pilot Purgatory: Enterprise AI projects often fail to scale because leaders chase consumer-level "magic" without engineering for compliance, traceability, and localised hardware costs.


Traceability & Explainability: Organisations must build step-by-step reporting tools to justify AI decisions (such as rejecting a bank loan) to ensure accountability when system errors occur.


The "Human in the Loop" Safeguard: To manage unpredictable edge cases, companies must deploy fail-safes and manual override triggers that pause autonomous workflows when model performance degrades.


Agentic AI & Open Claw: The next frontier of enterprise automation involves autonomous AI agents executing complex device-level tasks, driving a surge in localised processing hardware like Mac Studios to avoid staggering cloud token costs.



Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.

Employees leaking company secrets. Traceability gaps blocking production. 74% of organisations regret their AI vendors. The rush to adopt artificial intelligence is creating massive blindspots. Daren Tan of ALPHV Technologies joins Tech Talk to unpack the expensive realities of enterprise AI deployment and how to stop "Shadow AI" in its tracks.Learn More About:<ul><li>The Shadow AI Threat: Employees using free-tier consumer AI tools pose a massive cybersecurity risk, requiring strict endpoint management and enterprise legal contracts to prevent proprietary data leaks.</li><li>Escaping Pilot Purgatory: Enterprise AI projects often fail to scale because leaders chase consumer-level "magic" without engineering for compliance, traceability, and localised hardware costs.</li><li>Traceability &amp; Explainability: Organisations must build step-by-step reporting tools to justify AI decisions (such as rejecting a bank loan) to ensure accountability when system errors occur.</li><li>The "Human in the Loop" Safeguard: To manage unpredictable edge cases, companies must deploy fail-safes and manual override triggers that pause autonomous workflows when model performance degrades.</li><li>Agentic AI &amp; Open Claw: The next frontier of enterprise automation involves autonomous AI agents executing complex device-level tasks, driving a surge in localised processing hardware like Mac Studios to avoid staggering cloud token costs.</li></ul>Tech Talk is brought to you by Maxis Business. Building Tomorrow's Business Today.

The Future Of Market Research, Here and Now

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